Getting a high ranking on Google is the holy-grail for most of the companies I am working with (even the software companies). SEO is still the stuff of massively expensive agencies or wonder-employees who understand the direct monetary value of their magic.
(Over the last 4 – 6 weeks I know 3 not-insignificant web businesses who have had a hit to their top line due Google changing AGAIN. My theory, backed by only anecdotal evidence, is that Google are finding times a little tougher and are clamping down in a multitude of ways to squeeze every last penny out of customers. I digress. The key point is that Google is hard to game, even if you’re kosher.
However, sometimes we get a pleasant surprise. As my Friend Nic would quote, a black swan.
What is it worth to have an organic listing at sixth place for the search term “sex”?
What do you think all those wildy profitable “adult entertainment” web businesses would give?
I am sure there’s an agency out there who could give a tangible value to it.
Well that’s just what has recently happened to one of the portfolio sites of Mint Digital (Mint is one of my one of my personal investee companies).
Mint recently partnered with Channel 4 to create a site for the Sex Education show Sexperience. I am sure there are lots of people who would claim to be able to tell me why or how it happened. Intuatively it feels right but also completely wrong.
Now that they've got it up, I don’t suppose they'll be able to keep it up there forever.
In the meantime I can only wish is that 4 were smarter about monetization. No wonder they’re in trouble.
Google is definitely an odd thing. It changes its rules so much it's hard to keep up. Sometimes it gives you a bonus though. Sometimes one of your pages will land front page for a good keyword and you'll have no idea why. All said and done, I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for Google.
Posted by: Matt Wolfe | June 09, 2009 at 08:26 PM